Dear Gap C.
wow. it happened. we said goodbye for now and a big “see you later.” past 48 hours have been a whirlwind of emotions, and i realized that’s because of the amount of love i have for you. y’all have challenged what i thought my capacity to love was.
9 months ago, i showed up in Gainesville, GA with my overflowing, unorganized backpacks of camping gear i had no idea how to use, scared out of my mind and so in shock of what i had gotten myself into. 9 months ago, we saw each other’s beautiful faces for the first time, completely unaware of the amount of love and friendship that would come to exist within even the first month. i remember that first night, sitting in a giant circle all masked up, accidentally on purpose breaking so many COVID rules just to simply talk to each other and learn everyone’s names. and now look at us!
you guys have taught me so much about loving others well, being truly vulnerable, having real conversations and living in the joy of communion with the Father and His church. you’ve taught me the importance of pushing and fighting for unity within the church body, of not living in false harmony and pushing people to be who the Lord created them to be.
i will forever miss our random dance parties, blasting One Direction from the ginormous speaker and screaming the words at the top of our lungs. i will forever miss our competitive football and soccer games, running into the ocean at full speed together, and the endless Catan and chess games. i’ll miss out spontaneous worship nights because we simply can’t help but sing praises to the Lord. knowing your faces will no longer be the first faces i see in the morning or the last faces i see in my day hurts, but i’m thankful to be able to say that was part of my life for 9 months.
i see Jesus so clearly in each and every one of you and you radiate His love and beauty. i’m honored to have been loved by you. the past few months, knowing the race was coming to an end, there were so many times when i sat reminiscing over memories and times spent together that i had moments and thoughts of “wow, i can’t imagine loving these people any more than i already do” and then BOOM! God blows that out of the water. how is it possible to love people this much?!! Jesus, man, He does crazy things sometimes.
so thank you. thank you for the late night talks, encouraging words, ceaseless prayer and for being you. thank you for being my friends, my family, and my brothers and sisters. thank you for choosing in even when it got hard and for being an example of Jesus everywhere we went.
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven… a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to week, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance…”
– Ecclesiastes 3:1,4
Gap C you forever have a place in my heart. i love you all.
Quincy
p.s. when you read this, facetime me because i miss you already.
